In just a few hours, the LiUNA 150 will take the Green Flag at Lucas Oil Raceway Park in Indianapolis, Indiana. This will be Presley Sorah’s second race at his home track, after running this event last year where his day ended prematurely, due to a mechanical failure on Lap 48. This year, the Indiana driver has a clearer head, more experience and is ready for the challenge of conquering the 0.686-mile short track.
“I feel like patience will be key this year. When I had my mechanical failure last year, I was just buying my time, waiting until later in the race. Our car had a lot of speed and I think if we do the same this year, we’ll be in good shape. There’s no need to push it, since we have such a big field of 35 cars going for 34 spots in qualifying and there’s no need to rush things, since rushing makes mistakes and if we take our time and focus on the small details, we’ll be in good shape coming off the trailer today.”
Last year, Sorah drove for Fast Track Racing in the #12 Toyota, while this year, he’s set to pilot the #67 Chevrolet for Maples Motorsports. Those who know the business of racing understand that it’s important to find sponsorship early, being that most drivers bring hefty checks and teams need to prepare fast cars way in advance of every race.
“I’ve known Michael (Maples) for a couple of years now and I was his teammate last year at Fast Track Racing. We’ve been talking about this deal for quite some time, since he formed his own team this season, and obviously, Indianapolis is number one on my list since it’s my home race and this deal was discussed at PRI in December. I fulfilled my number one goal of putting this deal together and it’s crazy that it’s come this fast. We’re ready to rock and roll, we’ve got good partnerships onboard for this deal.”
Racing is a tough business and not for the weak. If you don’t have a fat wallet, you’ve got to keep pushing until it takes off, as a lot of drivers have had to do throughout the duration of their careers. Sorah gave good advice to future drivers who want to make it, and has been very transparent about his tenure in the ARCA Menards Series.
“I’d say keep at it. There are times when it looks pretty far out there and that it won’t take off and the chances don’t seem very high, but work hard, show up and be there. I’ve been to almost every ARCA race the last few seasons and the first year I spent volunteering help, while last year I took on more important roles for teams and now I’m doing photography and social media for racing. This sport is tough since it takes a lot of money to be competitive, stay with it, stay active and just keep pushing for it.”
Sorah got a taste of 1.5-mile track racing earlier this season at Kansas Speedway, when the ARCA Menards Series took to the track for a 150-mile event. With these ovals making up a good portion of the schedule across the national series of stock car racing, this seat time still holds a lot of value towards his long-term future in the sport.
“That one was interesting, since it was my first time on a mile-and-a-half track and I had no idea what to expect and it was really, really fun. By the end of the day, I was saying ‘this is my new favorite track’ and those cars are pretty fun to drive at Kansas. I got the call to drive the Sunday before the race and it was a pretty short notice, but I learned more in that day than any other day, season or race I’ve had in the past combined. It was a blast and I’d love to do it again when the series comes back to Kansas this year or next year. That car I drove at Kansas is the same car I drove at Indianapolis last year and it was really cool to drive that car again. That has to be my favorite car out of all the ones I’ve driven and it was cool to conquer it after it was rebuilt from the incident last year.”
The LiUNA! 150 takes place tonight at 5:30PM EST/2:30PM PST on Fox Sports 1. Last year, Connor Zilisch won this race and was able to move up to the NASCAR Xfinity Series this season and made various NASCAR Cup Series starts upon this success. While this might be just “another race” for a good portion of the field, Presley Sorah looks to bring the car home in one piece and continue to make a name for himself!
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